Even more importantly, he continues to get better, escaping Correa's shadow and making the question of the best young shortstop in the American League a tougher one to answer. The Indians aren't at the top of the division yet, but with slow starts from Edwin Encarnacion, Carlos Santana and much of the rotation, Lindor's blazing April is one of the things keeping the team afloat.

His hits aren't dinky, little, seeing-eye singles either, as Lindor has upped his power game in 2017 to that of the elite players. Just take a look at Statcast's Barrels count, which is a tally of balls hit with the exit velocity and angle to result in a batting average of .500 and 1.500 slugging (and starts at 98 mph exit velocity), early-season standings. The top five for rate include three noted power hitters in Yoenis Cespedes, Freddie Freeman and Khris Davis, a fourth in Eric Thames, who leads the league in homers as he returns from two 40-plus-homer seasons in Korea, and Lindor, the former glove-first shortstop prospect.

Lindor's scorching .351/.415/.684 through Tuesday's games has been significant enough to move his rest-of-season projections. I'm not just talking about the season totals added from the fast start. I'm talking about the actual estimate of his baseline level of play. The ZiPS projection system now projects Lindor to finish the season with 6.2 WAR, up from 5.3 WAR before the season. His OPS projection of .805 for the season is now up to .826 from now until the Indians finish their season.